[efoods]The West is sharpening the tone of its threats against Iran, but Tehran so far remains unimpressed and has even begun enriching uranium to 20 percent. Any new sanctions imposed against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime are likely to be just as ineffective as existing ones.

Western tensions with Iran are escalating once again, but will the West take action this time? The United States, France, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, are all demanding that the “pressure” on Iran be ratcheted up. It’s time for new sanctions, they say, to force Iran to come around in the dispute over its nuclear program. If forced, they say they are even prepared to take action independently of the United Nations Security Council, where China has been hard-nosed in its refusal to agree to further punitive measures against the regime in Tehran.

The threats, though, have left Iran cold. Indeed, Tehran hasn’t even bothered to respond. Instead the country is starting to enrich its own uranium.